Read the full Artist Statement:

This small abstract composition is all about leaning into & celebrating the small steps. It’s about meeting yourself where you’re at and finding joy in it. 

This print is about the journey of rediscovering my creative & adventurous self again after the trauma suffered from my attack last May where I was unknowingly stalked on my daily walks and assaulted in my own bed. I have not slept nor walked the same since that night waking up to a dark figure hovering over me, and I probably never truly will again.

Yet, I have been pushing myself to loosen the grip this trauma has had over me as best I can, taking small steps towards progress in healing, towards finding myself again. Hiking & walking were a big part of my identity & daily life. Hiking was how I connected with nature, and the natural world is what has always inspired me and my creative work. 

So I am in the process of retraining myself mentally to be able to trust going outside to walk again. Once the adrenaline of survival mode wore off last summer, I became pretty holed up, only venturing out on walks with friends occasionally. Yet, while the hikes with friends have been refreshing, the inspiration for my artwork has always been discovered on solo ventures when I have the quiet time to observe, document and wonder while I wander. 

I set a goal with my trauma therapist from PAAR that I would push myself to go on one walk a week this year at a minimum, whether that be only a couple blocks around my studio or further. I started with some Riverfront Trail walks, a stretch of trail close by that I am familiar with. It was on these short Riverfront Trail walks that I tried to focus on easing my hypervigilance as best I could and allow myself to relax and enjoy this restored nature corridor.

I kept it simple, knowing this attention outside of my hypervigilance is tough right now. I focused on simple shape, color and texture. Considering this piece is the first print I’ve designed since my attack, I’m a bit rusty, so I figured concentrating on these basic elements of design was the best way to get back into the flow of designing. 

Beyond taking myself out on short walks each week to learn how to trust commuting by foot in public again, I have also been leaning into winter hibernation, hunkering down and dedicating some time to creative play in order to loosen up and get back into the flow of designing after the long creative hiatus last year. 

I dedicated time to my two main creative play methods for loosening up: collage play and the Werkman Technique on my proofing press. The Werkman Technique is essentially stamping with my carved blocks and metal ornaments & border rule. Instead of locking the blocks into the press and sitting the paper on top of these locked in elements to print, I am sticking the paper face up on the press bed and stamping the inked up blocks into the paper by hand without any locking in. This method keeps the creation process moving faster by making it a form of mono-printing (every print is uniquely different). Check out this Reel to see the Werkman Technique in action.

Both with collage and the Werkman Technique I am building compositions shape by shape, reacting spontaneously to my previous shape or mark made on the page. For both techniques I keep things loose by starting with many sheets of paper, each slowly building into its own unique composition. By building many compositions at once I am not overly attached to any one composition, keeping the designing task loose, allowing me to jump to another composition when feeling stuck on one. 

None of the finished compositions from these play sessions ended up being the finished compositions for the two Winter Walks Studies, but I was able to find inspiration in various elements of those playful compositions and incorporate them into the finished designs. 

With these Winter Walks Studies, I wanted to highlight the beauty discovered in winter, a season that is often written off as gray and ugly. To help, I centered my short “training” walks around golden hour when the sun was setting. I found that this time of day illuminated the subtle colors of winter into something truly beautiful: the tan dormant grasses waving in the cold wind creating a moving texture, the rust colored crunchy leaves of the white oak, the deep burgundy spent pods of the sumac. 

To capture this essence, I focused my color palette for these studies around my light tan and my new reddish burgundy originally developed for my Deciduous Delight Triptych in fall 2022. I added small pops of my burnt orange and mustard to represent those rusty crunchy white oak leaves and the twinkling sun spots illuminating the landscape at golden hour. I also developed a new warm brown for these studies based on some of the dried up native plants found along my walks. The search for this color inspiration was a welcomed distraction to my anxiety and hypervigilance on these short walks, allowing me to relax enough to take in some deep breaths of the crisp air and enjoy the moment.

With these studies I was finding a light within the darkness I’ve been in, discovering beauty in the overlooked winter season, and celebrating the joy of these small steps of progress towards finding myself again post-trauma. I hope this print inspires you to seek out the beauty & light in the dark winter season too.